The impact of a changing climate on the severity of flooding has been demonstrated in the largest-scale study of its kind – with parts of northern Britain seeing the largest increase in Europe.
A multinational research team, which looked at river flow data from thousands of locations over a 50-year period, found that flood events are becoming increasingly severe in north-western Europe, including the UK, but decreasing in severity in southern and Eastern Europe.
The change ranges from an 11 per cent increase in flood levels in northern England and southern Scotland to a 23 per cent reduction in parts of Russia, with the researchers saying their findings provide the clearest evidence yet, at the European scale, of the link between climate change and flooding.
The study – published in the journal Nature – was led by the Vienna University of Technology and involved research institutions in 24 European countries, including the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH); the University of Bath; and the University of Liverpool.
Read more at Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Image: Floods have become more severe in northern Britain over the past 50 years, the new study has shown. Pictured above is the flooded Lyth Valley in Cumbria after Storm Desmond in December 2015 (Credit: CEH)